Cross-Cultural Analysis of Social Media Addiction Likelihood and Social Media Designs in the US and China

Authors

  • Eva Ong Concord College
  • Paris Lee University of Liverpool

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v11i3.3743

Keywords:

Addiction, Social Media, Social Media Design, UI Design, Social Media Usage, Guanxi

Abstract

Social media platforms or Social Network Sites(SNSs) are platforms we incorporate into our daily lives. They connect individuals from around the globe, present us with information, and provide content tailored to our interests. However, social media addiction in certain communities like the youth has become widespread. In order to understand where social media addiction stems from, we must first explore the motivations behind its use and the design features that social media companies incorporate into their platforms to make them addictive.

In this review, we will discuss how motivations for social media use are not homogeneous and differ by culture. As risks for social media addiction differ based on use cases and design, this review serves to see how social media design in China differs from those in the US based on their cultural differences. It will be seen that collectivist communities tend to have higher rates of social media addiction however, this is amplified through social media platforms’ employment of certain design features that play to these cultural features. As a result, these companies have increased the likelihood of social media addiction in already susceptible communities.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Eva Ong, Concord College

Eva is currently an A-level student at Concord College, graduating in 2023.

She is interested in furthering her studies in the field of Computer Science, Affective Computing, and Human-Computer Interaction, particularly in social media, recommendation algorithms, and wearable technology. 

Paris Lee, University of Liverpool

Paris is currently working at the University of Liverpool as a Research Assitant on Children Growing up in Liverpool (C-GULL) birth cohort study which considers the impact that growing up in poverty may have on a range of developmental outcomes. 

Her interests lie within the field of developmental neuroscience and addiction studies, with a particular interest in poverty. 

She has completed her MS in Developmental Neuroscience from Yale University, with a BS in Psychology from the University of Liverpool. 

References or Bibliography

Andreassen, C. S. (2015). Online Social Network Site Addiction: A Comprehensive Review. Current Addiction Reports, 2(2), 175–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-015-0056-9

Arora, S., & Okunbor, D. (2015). Social media applications: Are the youth addicted? 2015 International Conference on Cyberspace (CYBER-Abuja), 229–235. https://doi.org/10.1109/CYBER-Abuja.2015.7360512

Atuahene-Gima, K., & Li, H. (2002). When Does Trust Matter? Antecedents and Contingent Effects of Supervisee Trust on Performance in Selling New Products in China and the United States. Journal of Marketing - J MARKETING, 66, 61–81. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.66.3.61.18501

Boer, M., Stevens, G. W. J. M., Finkenauer, C., de Looze, M. E., & van den Eijnden, R. J. J. M. (2021). Social media use intensity, social media use problems, and mental health among adolescents: Investigating directionality and mediating processes. Computers in Human Behavior, 116, 106645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106645

Caplan, S. E. (2007). Relations among loneliness, social anxiety, and problematic Internet use. Cyberpsychology & Behavior: The Impact of the Internet, Multimedia and Virtual Reality on Behavior and Society, 10(2), 234–242. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9963

Chan, M. S., & Cheng, C. (2016). Explaining personality and contextual differences in beneficial role of online versus offline social support: A moderated mediation model. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 747–756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.058

Chau, P. (2008). Cultural Differences in Diffusion, Adoption, and Infusion of Web 2.0. Journal of Global Information Management, 16.

Chen, I.-H., Strong, C., Lin, Y.-C., Tsai, M.-C., Leung, H., Lin, C.-Y., Pakpour, A. H., & Griffiths, M. D. (2020). Time invariance of three ultra-brief internet-related instruments: Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS), Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), and the nine-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale- Short Form (IGDS-SF9) (Study Part B). Addictive Behaviors, 101, 105960. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.04.018

Cheng, C., Lau, Y., Chan, L., & Luk, J. W. (2021). Prevalence of social media addiction across 32 nations: Meta-analysis with subgroup analysis of classification schemes and cultural values. Addictive Behaviors, 117, 106845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106845

Cheng, Y., & Nielsen, J. (2016). WeChat: China’s Integrated Internet User Experience. Nielsen Norman Group: UX Research, Training, and Consulting. Nielsen Norman Group. Retrieved 31 July 2022. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/wechat-integrated-ux/

Choi, S. M., Chu, S.-C., & Kim, Y. (2014). Culture-Laden Social Engagement: A Comparative Study of Social Relationships in Social Networking Sites among American, Chinese and Korean Users [Chapter]. Cross-Cultural Interaction: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications; IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-4979-8.ch005

Chu, S.-C., & Choi, S. M. (2010). Social capital and self-presentation on social networking sites: A comparative study of Chinese and American young generations. Chinese Journal of Communication, 3(4), 402–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2010.516575

CNNIC (2016). “2015 nian Zhongguo shejiao lei yingyong yonghu xingwei yanjiu baogao” [2015 research report on user behaviour of Chinese social applications]. http://www.cnnic.net.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/sqbg/201604/P020160722551429454480.pdf

Country Comparison. (2021, June 21). Hofstede Insights. https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/

De Cock, R., Vangeel, J., Klein, A., Minotte, P., Rosas, O., & Meerkerk, G. J. (2014). Compulsive use of social networking sites in Belgium: prevalence, profile, and the role of attitude toward work and school. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 17(3), 166–171. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2013.0029

Dogan, V. (2019). Why Do People Experience the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO)? Exposing the Link Between the Self and the FoMO Through Self-Construal. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50(4), 524–538. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022119839145

Dunne, I., Lawlor, M., & Rowley, J. (2010). Young people’s use of online social networking sites – a uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 4(1), 46–58. https://doi.org/10.1108/17505931011033551

Elhai, J. D., Yang, H., & Montag, C. (2020). Fear of missing out (FOMO): Overview, theoretical underpinnings, and literature review on relations with severity of negative affectivity and problematic technology use. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 43(2), 203–209. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2020-0870

Eyal, N. (2012). Want To Hook Your Users? Drive Them Crazy. TechCrunch. https://social.techcrunch.com/2012/03/25/want-to-hook-your-users-drive-them-crazy/

Gan, C., & Wang, W. (2015). Uses and gratifications of social media: A comparison of microblog and WeChat. Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 17, 351–363. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-06-2015-0052

Gold, T., Guthrie, D., & Wank, D. (2002). Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture, and the Changing Nature of Guanxi (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences, Series Number 21). Cambridge University Press.

Gülnar, B., Balcı, Ş., & Çakır, V. (2010). Motivations of Facebook, You Tube and Similar Web Sites Users. Bilig. 54.

Hall, E. T. (1990). The Hidden Dimension. Anchor.

Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014

Hofstede, G., & Bond, M. H. (1984). Hofstede’s Culture Dimensions: An Independent Validation Using Rokeach’s Value Survey. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 15(4), 417–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002184015004003

Holmes, K., Balnaves, M., & Wang, Y. (2021). Red Bags and WeChat (Wēixìn): Online collectivism during massive Chinese cultural events. Retrieved 22 July 2022, from https://www.hca.westernsydney.edu.au/gmjau/?p=1770

Hwang, K. (2015). Face and Favor: The Chinese Power Game. American Journal of Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1086/228588

Johnson, P. (2009). Uses and gratifications of Twitter: An examination of user motives and satisfaction of Twitter use.

Joinson, A. (2008). Looking at, looking up or keeping up with people?: Motives and Use of Facebook. 1027–1036. https://doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357213

Jukka, M., Blomqvist, K., Li, P. P., & Gan, C. (2017). Trust-distrust balance: trust ambivalence in Sino-Western B2B relationships. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 24(3), 482–507. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccsm-01-2016-0019

Kim, Y., Sohn, D., & Choi, S. M. (2011). Cultural difference in motivations for using social network sites: A comparative study of American and Korean college students. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(1), 365–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.08.015

Kuss, D., & Griffiths, M. (2011). Excessive online social networking: Can adolescents become addicted to Facebook? Education and Health, 29, 68–71.

Lee, D., Pae, J. H., & Wong, Y. H. (2001). A model of close business relationships in China (guanxi). European Journal of Marketing, 35(1/2), 51–69. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560110363346

Leung, H., Pakpour, A. H., Strong, C., Lin, Y.-C., Tsai, M.-C., Griffiths, M. D., Lin, C.-Y., & Chen, I.-H. (2020). Measurement invariance across young adults from Hong Kong and Taiwan among three internet-related addiction scales: Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS), and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS-SF9) (Study Part A). Addictive Behaviors, 101, 105969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.04.027

Lisha, C., Goh, C. F., Yifan, S., & Rasli, A. (2017). Integrating guanxi into technology acceptance: An empirical investigation of WeChat. Telematics and Informatics, 34(7), 1125–1142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.05.003

Luo, C., Chen, A., Cui, B., & Liao, W. (2021). Exploring public perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine online from a cultural perspective: Semantic network analysis of two social media platforms in the United States and China. Telematics and Informatics, 65, 101712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2021.101712

Marcus, A., & Baradit, S. (2015). Chinese User-Experience Design: An Initial Analysis. In A. Marcus (Ed.), Design, User Experience, and Usability: Users and Interactions (pp. 107–117). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20898-5_11

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224

McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60(2), 175–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00970.x

Mesquita, B., & Janxin, L. (2007). The cultural psychology of emotions (pp. 734–759).

Michailova, S., & Worm, V. (2003). Personal Networking in Russia and China: Blat and Guanxi. European Management Journal, 21(4), 509–519. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0263-2373(03)00077-X

Moghavvemi, S., Binti Sulaiman, A., Jaafar, N. I. B., & Kasem, N. (2017). Facebook and YouTube addiction: The usage pattern of Malaysian students. 2017 International Conference on Research and Innovation in Information Systems (ICRIIS), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRIIS.2017.8002516

Montag, C., Becker, B., & Gan, C. (2018). The Multipurpose Application WeChat: A Review on Recent Research. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2247. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02247

Montag, C., & Hegelich, S. (2020). Understanding Detrimental Aspects of Social Media Use: Will the Real Culprits Please Stand Up? Frontiers in Sociology, 5. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2020.599270

Montag, C., Lachmann, B., Herrlich, M., & Zweig, K. (2019). Addictive Features of Social Media/Messenger Platforms and Freemium Games against the Background of Psychological and Economic Theories. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(14), 2612. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142612

Mull, I. R., & Lee, S.-E. (2014). “PIN” pointing the motivational dimensions behind Pinterest. Computers in Human Behavior, 33, 192–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.01.011

Neyman, C. (2017). A Survey of Addictive Software Design. 1(1), 12.

Pariser, E. (2011). The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You. Penguin UK.

Qiu, L., Lin, H., & Leung, A. K. -y. (2013). Cultural Differences and Switching of In-Group Sharing Behavior Between an American (Facebook) and a Chinese (Renren) Social Networking Site. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(1), 106–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022111434597

Reinecke, K., & Bernstein, A. (2013). Knowing what a user likes: A design science approach to interfaces that automatically adapt to culture. MIS Quarterly, 37, 427–454. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-73183

Romeo, P. (2016). Cross-Cultural HCI and UX Design: A Comparison of Chinese and Western User Interfaces. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18547.63525

Saaid, S. A., Al-Rashid, N. A. A., & Abdullah, Z. (2014). The Impact of Addiction to Twitter among University Students. In J. J. (Jong H. Park, I. Stojmenovic, M. Choi, & F. Xhafa (Eds.), Future Information Technology (pp. 231–236). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40861-8_35

Sherman, L. E., Payton, A. A., Hernandez, L. M., Greenfield, P. M., & Dapretto, M. (2016). The Power of the Like in Adolescence. Psychological Science, 27(7), 1027–1035. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616645673

Statista. (2022, August 22). Facebook: quarterly number of MAU (monthly active users) worldwide 2008–2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

Sun, H. (2020). Global Social Media Design: Bridging Differences Across Cultures. Oxford University Press.

Sun, L., Zhang, H., Zhang, S., & Luo, J. (2020). Content-based Analysis of the Cultural Differences between TikTok and Douyin. ArXiv:2011.01414 [Cs]. http://arxiv.org/abs/2011.01414

Vodanovich, S., McKenna, B., & Cai, W. (n.d.). Cultural Values Inherent in the Design of Social Media Platforms: A Case Study of WeChat. 10.

Wang, X. (2016). Social Media in Industrial China. UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781910634646

Yen, D. A., Barnes, B. R., & Wang, C. L. (2011). The measurement of guanxi: Introducing the GRX scale. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(1), 97–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2010.09.014

Zhang, C., & Hong, S.-J. (2017). Guanxi Culture. In The China Business Model: Originality and Limits (pp. 19–40). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100750-1.00002-4

Zhou, H. (2020). A Study on Impact of College Students’ Mobile Phone Addictions on Their Self-identities. 2020 International Conference on Modern Education and Information Management (ICMEIM). https://doi.org/10.1109/icmeim51375.2020.00145

Published

08-31-2022

How to Cite

Ong, E., & Lee, P. (2022). Cross-Cultural Analysis of Social Media Addiction Likelihood and Social Media Designs in the US and China. Journal of Student Research, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v11i3.3743

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 3 (2022)

Section

HS Review Articles

Copyright (c) 2022 Eva Ong; Paris Lee

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.